Elves, Dwarves, and Tributes, Oh My!
by Minerakf
Summary: A year after Frodo destroys the ring of power, middle earth is starting to settle down again. Then, on a wild stag chase through Fangorn forest, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find themselves in a completely different place. When they hear screams and people running, they have no clue what to think. Can the three middle-earthians survive the arena? Or worse, the wrath of the Capital?


Hi everyone! This is my newest book! I hope you enjoy, and I apologize to those who are sad that I have not updated New York awaits, or The Scavengers of Pyrrhia for a long time. I feel sooo bad... I have horrible writer's block, and I've been working a LOT! But I read a fan fic on this, and thought, I would like to do this, so yay! Also, please forgive me if I make a mistake on LOTR stuff. I don't know the books nearly as well as I know Percy Jackson and stuff. Also, talking " _like this"_ means they are talking in Elvish. Sorry, but I can't translate EVERYTHING! It would take absolutely forever to post chapters! :( Forgive me... Anyways, Enjoy!

 **Katniss:**

I still couldn't believe this was real, even when the clock started to count down the seconds till the bloodbath to come. Haymitch's words echoed in my head like they were trying to break free.

 _Don't go for the bow. Don't go for the bow. Don't go for the bow._

3...

 _Don't go for the bow._

2...

 _Don't go for the bow._

1...

I went for the bow. If I didn't get a bow, I was done for. I didn't care what Haymitch was thinking right now. The girl beside me fell to the ground, a knife sticking out of her head, her eyes wide, blood dribbling from her mouth. I forced myself to keep running. I was close, so close! Three feet. Two feet.

BAM! Someone crashed into me from my left. We crashed to the ground, and pain flared through my ribs. Stupid Katniss... Stupid... STUPID!

Why did I go for the bow? Silently, I said my goodbyes to Prim, and Gale, and mother, as the boy prepared to stab his curved knife into my heart. I struggled feebly, but I was already winded from the fall, and he had me pinned down very effectively.

 _Well, this is it... I'm sorry Prim. I'm sorry that you have to see this... Please, take care of mother..._

Just as he brought the knife down, he screamed as an arrow pierced his shoulder. I could tell it had been aimed for his heart. I saw Rue with a bow running off into the woods behind him.

I used the distraction to shove him off of me. I dashed for the woods, grabbing a small pack on the way. I slung it over my shoulder, and sprinted harder than before.

A knife whizzed past me, and impaled itself into a tree. I yanked it out as I ran past, glad that I had a weapon now. Screams pierced the air all around me, and I heard sticks breaking under the feet of tributes fleeing for their lives. I ran until I could hardly breathe, and finally collapsed under a bush. All I could do was hope I wouldn't be found.

Because if I was found, I was too weak to do anything about it...

 **Legolas:**

"Ranger, are you coming or not?" Legolas taunted Aragorn, who shrugged, and spurred his horse till it was trotting along beside the elf's mount. Gimli chuckled, and Aragorn rode over to him and gave him a shove that nearly toppled the fat dwarf off of his horse, who was practically collapsing under his weight. Legolas needed to remember to ask lord Elrond for an Elven horse that could actually carry anything heavier than a regular man. Dwarven horses were never strong enough to carry their masters, and always lazy beasts, if you asked him.

They entered Fangorn forest, and led their horses carefully through the morning fog. Legolas shivered, slightly from the cool morning breeze that was swirling the mist in the air, but mostly because something felt amiss. But Legolas put aside his unease, and followed Aragorn into the forest. Almost immediately, a stag leapt from the brush, and dashed off into the dark forest.

With loud whoops, the three took chase. They almost lost it twice, and at last Legolas was close enough to shoot. He took aim, but suddenly, his horse bucked, and his aim was thrown off.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aragorn and Gimli's horses do likewise. Unfortunately for him, Gimli had not had a good hold on his reins, and he tumbled off into a pile of leaves.

Legolas and Aragorn chuckled merrily, as the angry dwarf stood up, and pulled the stray leaves out of his beard.

"You would expect a better aim from an elf prince, would you not?" taunted Gimli.

Legolas did not answer, for he had sensed something had changed.

"Aragorn... Does it feel... warmer to you?" muttered the elf.

Aragorn's eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Legolas! The morning mist! It has gone! And look! The trees are... different species!"

"What is this wizardry?" cried Gimli looking very frightened.

"These trees, they are spread further apart. Look! Sunlight!" Aragorn pointed at a beam of light that had found a way through the leaves.

Legolas gasped suddenly, and nearly fainted from his mount. "The... the... trees...they are lifeless!"

Aragorn and Gimli shared startled expressions. Legolas couldn't believe it. The trees seemed dead! They did not talk! Every man, dwarf, elf, and plant in Middle-Earth sung the song of life, the song of nature! But these trees, they were silent.

Aragorn watched Legolas as he stretched his hand out to the nearest clump of branches. Legolas sighed with relief, when the branches still leaned closer so he could touch them. The trees still honored him, even though they seemed lifeless.

"We are no longer in Fangorn forest..." muttered Aragorn.

"What made you think that?" scowled Gimli, wringing his pudgy hands anxiously.

Suddenly, a loud sound echoed through the woods. It was a horn of sorts.

Legolas sensed a throng of people, running in all directions. "There are many people, at least a dozen. They seem to be... children... They are running about in a clearing about eighty paces to our left.

"Be prepared for anything," warned Aragorn. Legolas didn't think children could be dangerous, but he had learned to expect the worst after the many battles he had been through.

And he was right to expect the worst. Because not twenty seconds later, a scream pierced the calm of the forest, and the elf smelled the sharp tang of blood.

"What in the name of Isengard was THAT?!" cried Gimli.

Several more screams echoed through the air, and the smell of blood became stronger. Legolas heard the scampering of feet only twenty paces to his right. He looked over, and his sharp elf eyes saw a flash of white in the green underbrush. It appeared to be a child, fleeing from something.

Legolas sent off his horse, and Aragorn did the same. They crouched in the brush, watching and listening to the screams of children, that rang out every couple minutes.

"What is killing these children? Can we take it?" whispered Aragorn.

"I... I sense nothing but... children... There are no orcs... or wargs...just...children..."

Aragorn looked startled. Gimli, frowned and said, "Maybe the children are killing each other..."

"GIMLI!" cried Legolas and Aragorn at the same time. "Sorry! I was only guessing!"

"Let us leave this foul place..." said Legolas. "The air is...sickly... I smell... fire in the air... It is not clean..."

"Indeed... Even I can smell the foul scent on the air..." muttered Aragorn.

The three crept through the brush, still hearing screams all around them, and the sharp smell of blood on the breeze.

Suddenly, a human boy leapt through the trees near them. The boy was burly, and looked as if he was a warrior. But he was so young... Legolas suspected he was only in his thirteenth year.

The boy was wearing gray clothes that Legolas had never seen before. He had a small bag on his back, and odd looking shoes on his feet. They were like nothing he had ever seen before.

 _"He is fleeing from something,"_ Legolas whispered to his friends.

 _"Indeed. But from what?"_

 _"I do not know, Aragorn. Let us watch and listen."_

They did not have to wait long. But a moment later, another child burst from the brush, with a curved knife in hand. It had an odd handle, made of something Legolas had never seen before, and it was very plain, with no engravings at all.

He had never seen a weapon that did not have some sort of engraving on it. Was it possible that the material used to make the knife could not be engraved? The three's eyes widened as the boy with the knife fell upon the other boy, who shrieked in fear.

Without even thinking, Legolas was in front of the boy in a blink of an eye, his dagger raised to block the other child's curved knife. The knives hit with a resounding clang, and both boys stared at him in shock.

The boy he had saved had curly brown hair, and an impish face that was frozen in shock, and fear. The other boy had short cut blonde hair, and a angry scowl on his face.

"Who the heck are you? I guess we'll just have to kill you too, won't we?" he sneered at the elf, who was looking angrily at the murderous boy.

Three more boys came out of the trees. One raised a bow, another had a sword, and the third had a spear. The bow was extremely odd, made out of a material that Legolas suspected was the same as the hilt of the other boy's curved knife.

Legolas did not want to hurt these children. They must have been extremely foolish, to challenge him, an elf prince. But perhaps they didn't know who he was...

"You are not the only one with friends, human child,"

"Aragorn! Gimli!" His friends emerged from the bush where they had been watching.

"What do we have here? Some children with weapons? Shall we disarm them?" asked Aragorn, chuckling slightly.

"Indeed, I believe we should," replied Legolas cheerfully.

"Dude, who talks like that anymore? And who are you calling a child? You're no older than 16," the short haired blonde boy said, scowling fiercely.

One of the other boys, who also had blonde hair, but it was swept over his head in a kind of wave-like manner, muttered, "Cato, these guys look pretty fierce..."

The boy named Cato ignored him, and looked at the small group.

He saw Aragorn's sword in its sheath, Legolas' bow and quiver strapped to his back, and Gimli's double sided battle axe. His eyes widened upon seeing this, and he looked astonished just at seeing the dwarf. Legolas understood why. To most humans, the sight of a dwarf was extremely unsettling. He suspected it had something to do with the hair...

"Who the heck is the short, hairy guy?" asked Cato with disgust.

"Ahem! The 'short, hairy guy' would be a dwarf. Gimli, son of Gloin, at your service," Gimli said, with a little bow.

"A dwarf... Sureeee..." muttered Cato, although he looked extremely befuddled. "Whatever. You may have weapons, but I doubt you even know how to use them. We, on the other hand, have trained for 13 years of our lives."

Legolas could have laughed at how little this child knew.

"Boy, I have trained since I was two. That would be... let me think... if I remember correctly... last winter was my two thousandth, three hundred and forty third year... I think..."

The boy's expression went from shock, to disbelief, to anger in a matter of seconds.

"2342 years old. You guys are weirdos..." scowled Cato. Weirdos? What was weirdos?

"Weird... Os?" he said, testing out the word. It sounded odd in his mouth.

The boys stared at him like he was a brainless orc, and then Cato shrugged. "Whatever, let's kill these idiots,"

"Good idea," said one of his friends, and they charged at Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli with loud battle cries.

So this was how it must be. Oh well. Legolas whipped out his bow and fired an arrow. _Whoosh!_ The arrow carved a clear cut down Cato's scalp. He jerked in astonishment, then sneered. "You missed."

"I did not miss. I do not aim to kill you," Legolas replied calmly. This seemed to startle the boys, but only for a second. The other blond haired boy leapt at Aragorn with his sword, which Aragorn parried, and knocked out of the boy's hand with the most simple of disarming maneuvers. These children were not well trained at all. As Legolas had suspected.

Legolas willed the nearest tree branch to bend closer, and he grabbed hold as the limb sprung back up, using the momentum to propel himself onto a higher branch. Cato looked around confused, and Legolas jumped to the ground behind the unsuspecting boy, landing lightly, and cat-like. Within seconds, he had disarmed Cato, and had his knife at the child's neck.

Gimli had been trying to catch the other two, but they had evaded him, and, seeing their leader defeated, they turn and fled.

 _Weaklings..._ thought Legolas, but he grinned. These children were all fools. Thinking they could fight the King of Gondor, and him, an elf prince! Not even the hobbits had done such foolish things!

"Please! Don't kill me! I have to get back to my mother!" whimpered Cato fear in his eyes. Legolas felt pity for the sorrowful boy, so he released him. Immediately, the boy yanked Legolas' knife out of his hand, gave the elf a sizable cut on the wrist, and dashed off into the darkening afternoon woods.

Legolas cursed, and rubbed his wrist. Aragorn scowled.

"Foolish boy... I should have known..." muttered Legolas.

 _"What do we do with the other boy?"_ asked Aragorn, nodding at the blonde haired boy, who appeared to be in shock. He kept looking wildly around at the three of them, like he had never seen anything so amazing. Legolas had to stifle a laugh.

 _"Let him go,"_ said Legolas with a shrug. Aragorn complied, quickly stepped back from the boy. The boy just stood there, looking at them in fear and awe.

"W..Who are you? You're not tributes... And you speak a... different language... Did you come from outside the districts?!"

Tributes? Districts? Legolas knew that tributes were gifts given to a figure of power, most often after that power had captured their city... But the boy had seemed startled that THEY weren't tributes. How could a person be a tribute? Was this boy a tribute to some foreign power that Legolas had never heard of?

"What in Durin's name is a district?" cried Gimli, tugging at his beard exasperatedly.

"Who is Durin? And what kind of name is that?" asked the boy.

"An honorable one! I don't suspect your name is very honorable, considering the likes of whom you were traveling with," muttered Gimli, scowling at the ground.

"Who ARE you guys? Why do you talk so weird? Who uses 'whom' anymore, I mean, seriously?"

"Legolas Greenleaf, at your service," said Legolas, inclining his head a little towards the boy. He didn't really feel like serving the boy after what his friend had done to his wrist, which was still bleeding and throbbing, but it was the only the proper way to greet him.

"Aragorn," said the king gruffly.

"Gimli, son of Gloin, at your service," said Gimli, yet again, with a curt nod.

"Yeah, you said that already. And what do you mean, you're at my service? So you'll work for me? I don't get it..."

Legolas looked at him with astonishment, and cried, "Of course not! Tis only the proper way to greet a man!"

"Tis... God! What is up with you?! And how did you get through the barrier?!

"Barrier?" asked Gimli. "I saw no fortifications..."

"Fortifications?" cried the boy. "So you don't know where you are?!"

"The last I knew, we were chasing a stag through Fangorn Forest. Now we are here."

"Fangorn Forest..." the boy repeated confusedly.

"Boy, what is your name?" inquired Legolas.

"Peeta..." he muttered.

"Peeta, where are we?" he asked.

"The arena of course!" cried Peeta, looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

"And why are children trying to kill each other?" asked Gimli, with a small grunt.

"Because, this is the annual hunger games. 24 children, two from each district, a boy and a girl, must fight to the death, for the amusement of the Capital. 24 go in, one comes out alive." Peeta seethed, rage glowing in his eyes.

"Children... fighting to the death?!" cried Legolas. He pressed his fingers against his temples, and sank to the ground. This was too much. Already, he had sensed at least 8 people had died. 8 children. Killed by other children! Legolas leaned his head against the rough bark of a tree, and wept.


End file.
